SCREENWRITING
INT. WRITER’S ROOM - DAY
In addition to the copywriting and creative direction work I’ve done, I’ve also been involved in many great projects as a screenwriter, playwright, and fiction writer.
The film featured here was based on a short story of mine published in the HOW Art and Literary Journal. I turned this into a screenplay that was produced and directed by Jake Nelson. It stars multiple Academy Award nominee Todd Field (Tar, In the Bedroom, Little Children).
The Backward Astronomer premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and won multiple awards, including:
Vimeo Staff Pick
Winner: Palm Springs International Animation Festival
Best animation: Victoria Film Festival
Best 2D animation: Florida Film Festival
Best Illustrative animation: Los Angeles Animation Festival
Best Animation: Highway 61 Film Festival
Phoenix Empire!
Feature screenplay
Winner: Grand Prize of Fresh Voices Screenplay Competition
Optioned in 2020
Kind words:
“Phoenix Empire! is a wholly original script, and Jade Shames is the epitome of a Fresh Voice. He’s created a very compelling character in Fern Harmon, and placed her in a truly unique story. I’m excited to see what Jade does next.”
— Evan Cavic, literary manager at Artists First
“It is so rewarding to undergo a yearlong process to discover new writers, to come away with something as special and unique as this. Phoenix Empire! is a fantastic tale of one woman’s life told in so much detail, with so much empathy, and such rich emotion, it is utterly amazing that this is a mere product of someone’s imagination. It feels so real and so lived, I had to constantly remind myself that this was not a true story, no matter how fantastic it became. Jade’s use of traditional and non-traditional narrative mechanisms weave seamlessly. Jade takes a lot of risks, but never did I lose confidence. There were constant reminders along the way that you were in good hands; that the writer was always in control of the story no matter how far the boundaries were pushed.”
— Joel Mendoza, Chairman of the Fresh Voices Screenplay Competition
"In PHOENIX EMPIRE, Jade Shames shows he has an extraordinary level of daring and imagination. It is a piece of total originality that defies convention or formula. Of all the great new writers this contest introduced me to, Jade is an original voice that must be encouraged."
— Joel Schumacher
Special project
Special project
I collaborated with some awesome filmmakers to create the Human Resources web series. It’s funny, bizarre, and wholly original.
